Bexar County hones message in Zika fight

That constant buzz you’ll be hearing soon is Bexar County’s escalating information war against mosquitoes.

Public service messages about fighting mosquitoes will proliferate in coming weeks as the county steps up education efforts about the spreading Zika virus.

The county will spend up to $85,000 to use social media, direct mail and freebies to spread the word throughout the warmer months when mosquitoes breed. The messaging will coincide with the county’s mosquito eradication efforts in unincorporated areas.

“We’re getting on top of this issue as much as we possibly can,” County Judge Nelson Wolff said.

The county will begin spraying in some suburban areas in April — several weeks earlier than usual. County workers already are placing larvicide dunks in standing water and setting traps to capture mosquitoes for testing, officials said.

“Our mosquito abatement effort can really only affect public rights-of-way and county-owned land. We can’t go onto private property,” County Manager David Smith said Tuesday during a briefing for Commissioners Court.

The county, has about 1,300 miles of public rights-of-way and 4,200 acres of ditches to treat in unincorporated areas, won’t be conducting eradication efforts inside San Antonio, which are handled by the city.

The county’s publicity campaign is “a more direct outreach plan to residents and citizens in the unincorporated area to try to get them to help us by doing their part to check water traps and other mosquito-breeding areas,” Smith said.

Printed information will be provided in English and Spanish from the Centers for Disease Control. The county plans to distribute the information at county events, parks and sports venues, BiblioTech, clinics and through suburban cities, neighborhood groups, schools, SAWS and others.

At some events, the county also will distribute mosquito repellent and magnets. The county also has assembled a speakers bureau and arranged for messaging-on-hold for callers to the county phone system.

Although no cases of mosquito-transmitted Zika have been recorded in the continental United States, more than 250 imported cases have been identified, and others have been transmitted from human to human. Those with Zika usually have mild symptoms and often don’t realize they’re infected.

No U.S. deaths have been blamed on the virus, but its link to birth defects and Guillain-Barré syndrome are being studied. On Feb. 1, Zika was declared an international public-health emergency and is expected to spread from the worst-impacted areas in South and Central America, Africa, the Pacific and Caribbean.

Bexar County has had three confirmed cases of Zika, all involving travelers to affected areas; 26 possible cases remain under investigation.

jgonzalez@express-news.net

Twitter: @johnwgonzalez

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